Embargo, etching by Alexander Anderson, reflecting a hostile reaction to the …

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

By 1805 the struggle between England and France had degenerated into a war of economic retribution, as each side attempted to starve the other into submission. When the British issued orders in council imposing a blockade on the northwest coast of Europe, Napoleon retaliated with the Continental System, a pair of decrees that prohibited British trade with the continent and threatened seizure of any neutral vessels found trading with England. In the midst of that economic vise was the neutral United States. Lacking a navy after the defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon was forced to confine his efforts to U S. vessels in French ports. Thus, the attention of the United States was directed primarily at British actions on the high seas that violated international law.

Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison determined to enforce a recognition of American rights by commercial retaliation, a concept rooted in American foreign policy since the Nonimportation Agreements that preceded the American Revolution. A nonimportation act adopted by Congress in 1806 excluded from the U.S. a limited variety of British manufactured goods, but the operation of the act was delayed for a year pending negotiations for a settlement. In June 1807 Anglo-American relations deteriorated further when the British frigate Leopard fired upon the U.S. warship Chesapeake and forced it to submit to a search for British deserters. Impressment, a practice previously confined to American merchant vessels, was thus extended to a public armed vessel of the United States. Amid a general clamour for war, Jefferson opted for an economic response.

An 1808 political cartoon depicting U.S. Pres. Thomas Jefferson addressing a group of disgruntled …

At Jefferson’s request the two houses of Congress considered and passed the Embargo Act quickly in December 1807. All U.S. ports were closed to export shipping in either U.S. or foreign vessels, and restrictions were placed on imports from Great Britain. The act was a hardship on U.S. farmers as well as on New England and New York mercantile and maritime interests, especially after being buttressed by harsh enforcement measures adopted in 1808. Its effects in Europe were not what Jefferson had hoped. French and British dealers in U.S. cotton, for example, were able to raise prices at will while the stock already on hand lasted; the embargo would have had to endure until these inventories were exhausted. Napoleon is said to have justified seizure of U.S. merchant ships on the ground that he was assisting Jefferson in enforcing the act. The Federalist leader Timothy Pickering even alleged that Napoleon himself had inspired the embargo.

Confronted by bitter and articulate opposition, Jefferson on March 1, 1809 (two days before the end of his second term), signed the Non-Intercourse Act, permitting U.S. trade with countries other than France and Great Britain. U.S. trade restrictions were rolled back entirely by Macon’s Bill No. 2 (1810), which authorized the president, upon normalization of commercial relations with either England or France, to reinstate nonintercourse against the other. Seizing the opportunity, Napoleon announced that his decrees were repealed, insofar as they affected the United States. After waiting several months for a similar response from England, Madison—who had succeeded Jefferson as president—prohibited trade with Great Britain in February 1811. That action helped set the stage for the War of 1812.

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...which resulted in naval blockades in the Atlantic and Caribbean that severely curtailed American trade and pressured the U.S. government to take sides in the conflict. Jefferson’s response was the Embargo Act (1807), which essentially closed American ports to all foreign imports and American exports. The embargo assumed that the loss of American trade would force England and France to alter...

...Robert Smith, secretary of state and wrote all important diplomatic letters for two years before replacing him with James Monroe. Although he had fully supported Jefferson’s wartime shipping embargo, Madison reversed his predecessor’s policy two weeks after assuming the presidency by secretly notifying both Great Britain and France, then at war, that, in his opinion, if the country...

...as his successor. As an architect of the U.S. Constitution and Jefferson’s principal adviser, Madison appeared to be an ideal presidential candidate. However, widespread dissatisfaction with the Embargo Act of 1807—a foreign-policy maneuver contrived by Jefferson and Madison that had had unintended deleterious effects on the U.S. economy—led to fractiousness within the...

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During the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France, President Thomas Jefferson attempted to preserve U.S. neutrality by asking Congress to pass the Embargo Act (1807). The act attempted to nonviolently resist the British and French practice of accosting U.S. merchant ships suspected of carrying cargoes to the opposing belligerents. It closed all U.S. ports to export shipping in either U.S. or foreign vessels and placed restrictions on imports from Great Britain. The act was a hardship on U.S. farmers as well as on New England and New York mercantile and maritime interests. The embargo policy assumed that the loss of American trade would force England and France to alter their behaviors, but the Europeans had no immediately pressing need for U.S. goods, being in possession of back stock. It was the American economy that was wrecked by Jefferson’s policy, and as a result he faced bitter opposition. On March 1, 1809, two days before the end of his second term, Jefferson signed the Non-Intercourse Act permitting U.S. trade with nations other than France and Great Britain.